


as it goes

by clandestinerabbit



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 04:32:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17821952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clandestinerabbit/pseuds/clandestinerabbit
Summary: After graduation, what?After graduation, the world.





	as it goes

Josh makes it all the way through college without deciding what he wants to do with his life—like, he has a major, but it’s broad, and there’s a lot of directions he could go, and he doesn’t know how to choose, and he doesn’t really want to leave New York, but also he has no money. It’s Eric who suggests it, which surprises everyone and no one. There was a presentation in Congress about humanitarian efforts in countries affected by genocide and sure, Eric heard water _sports_ for water _rights_ , but Josh finds himself thinking about it all the same.

  
Topanga finds the internship. Cory freaks out until his wife calms him down. Shawn passes along a camera. Auggie saves up for a GoPro. Riley can’t decide if she’s crying because she’s proud or scared.

  
Maya’s the one who actually convinces him to go.

  
 _You have to go, Boing,_ she says. _You can have an adventure and do good at the same time. Why would you pass that up?_

  
He listens to her whole thing without speaking. He had thought, maybe, they were coming up on someday. But he guesses not.

  
 _It’s a real long game_ , Maya says anyway, managing a smile.

  
He kisses her cheek when he says goodbye. They both think a year’s not so bad.

  
But it isn’t a year.

  
Because Josh is _good_ at this work, okay, and he _loves_ it, and when his year is up he just stays.

  
 _I thought he would_ , Maya says when Riley tells her.

  
They’ve been emailing over the year when he has internet connection, but nothing real deep, and sometimes she’ll stay when the Matthews manage to Skype, but she tries not to intrude too much. Anyway, they’re both busy dreaming and trying and doing good. He helps dig a well that supplies three villages with water. She succeeds in school as herself, not as Riley.They don’t notice when months pass between emails.

  
He comes home twice while she’s in college. The first time, for a month in the summer between sophomore and junior year, she’s studying in Italy. The second time, she’s skiing with her boyfriend’s family and spends the whole two weeks wishing she was home.

  
He thinks, _so, still not yet_.

  
Riley sends pictures of Maya’s senior show—by accident, she’s really sending Uncle Josh pictures of her Serious Boyfriend. He prints them out and doesn’t pay attention to the fact that his favorite one happens to be the only one with her smile.

  
When Riley gets engaged, Josh makes immediate plans to return. He can’t miss his niece’s wedding. He can only get a week, including travel, but it’s worth it.

  
Naturally, Maya is Riley’s right hand. Riley might as well be handless for all the help she is. She’s so busy she doesn’t stop moving for three days, except to eat, once. That’s the time he finds her.

  
 _Should I give my blessing?_ he asks.

  
_If I give my blessing, you think yours matters?_

  
_But is he a good guy?_ he presses.

  
She looks at him steadily, matching his seriousness. _He is. I don’t have to protect her when he’s around_.

  
The wedding is beautiful and perfect. Riley is blissful. Maya spends the whole day fighting back tears—happy ones, she tells everyone who asks.

  
Josh cuts in when she’s dancing with Farkle. Farkle is, of course, more than willing to give up his place and scurries to find Smackle.

  
_Smackle, my best beloved, may I make a hypothesis?_

  
_I love nothing better._

  
He nods at the dance floor, where Maya is laughing at Josh’s impression of himself attempting a tribal dance. _I believe the long game may finally be nearing its end_.

  
Smackle is skeptical— _you and I already serve as a statistical anomaly—_ but Farkle is firm.

  
The music slows. Maya and Josh look at each other, a question heavy between them. Then she raises her eyebrows: a challenge.

He has spent the last few years rising to challenges. He’s not going to stop now. She is still very short and he is still very tall. Somehow they fit perfectly anyway.

  
 _So,_ he says, _how are you?_

  
 _Happy!_ she swears, _why wouldn’t I be?_

  
He nods, looking over her head.

  
 _What?_ she demands.

  
_Just, if you ever feel—_

  
_What?_

  
_I know how it is, okay? All my friends are settling down. They’ve got all this other stuff they’re thinking about and I’m not, and it’s different. I get it._

  
She just looks at him. She’s forgotten how he has this way of cutting to the heart of an issue, how that’s the thing that always made them alike, when so much else about them is different.

  
 _So_ , he says. _I’m, uh, I’m here. If you want._ Then he steps back, holding her back at arm’s length. _Gosh, you sure did grow up gorgeous_.

  
And then he lets go, and one of his many relatives falls upon him, and Riley needs help changing into her going-away dress, and that’s it.

  
Except it’s not.

  
Because she goes home that night and writes him a long, long email all about everything she’s been stuffing down the last year at least and, while she doesn’t send it for three days and it takes him another two to find enough time to read it, it’s the beginning. For a year, the messages fly back and forth every few days: serious ones, silly ones, I-had-a-crappy-day ones, something-amazing-happened ones, what-do-you-think-I-should-do ones. His co-workers start to tease him mercilessly. He plays it off until he’s skyping home one time and says something about Maya that’s news to Riley, and then he starts to think: _Maybe a few more rolls of the dice_.

  
He messages her a month later with the news: he’s coming home.

  
She knew it was in the works—his non-profit has been needing someone in the States to advocate and fundraise—but she finds tears filling her eyes anyway, and she can’t blame them on staring at her work too long.

  
 _I won’t come the first night_ , she sends him. _You should have that time with your family_. Also, she doesn’t think anyone really understands what they’ve built between them this last year, and she feels a little awkward explaining it.

  
(She’s wrong. If you don’t think Shawn and Cory gossip about it at least twice a week you don’t know Shawn and Cory.)

  
The second night, though—the second night there’s about a million of them in Cory and Topanga’s apartment, where Josh is staying in Riley’s old room with the bay window, and they can’t stop looking at each other, even when they’re talking to other people, even when the entire length of the apartment is between them. This works out really well, since everybody else is making extremely suggestive eyebrows at each other and they would be super embarrassed if they noticed.

  
Eventually Maya stands up. _I’m gonna go_ , she says, and _thanks,_ and _yes, soon_.

  
 _I’ll walk you home_ , he blurts out, grabbing his jacket from the rack like he’s been waiting for it.

  
Ava Morgenstern, who is no longer married to Auggie but still manages to worm her way in to every family event, says _you know she doesn’t live around here anymore_ , but they’re already out the door. She looks at Auggie and speaks loud enough for them to hear her in Chinatown. _What do you want to bet they don’t even make it to the subway?_

  
She’s prescient. They barely make it a block down before she grabs him by the open flap of his jacket and drags him into a shadowed doorway. _So_ , she says, _you’ve lived your life and I’ve lived mine. Are we gonna finally roll the dice on this thing, or what?_

  
 _Twelve_ , he says, and takes her face in her hands and kisses her.

  
They both swear afterward that they hear the tinny music and see the glow of the multi-colored lights, which makes Riley _aww_ for about five minutes straight.

  
 _I told you so_ , Farkle says.

  
Smackle nods seriously. _I have never been so happy to be wrong._


End file.
